


it's not a rose

by flootzavut



Series: Kate & Gibbs [6]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Community: nfacommunity, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e12 My Other Left Foot, F/M, Humour, Kibbs, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-19
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-04-11 13:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4437647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flootzavut/pseuds/flootzavut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, just how DID Gibbs know about that tattoo...? Vague spoilers for 1.4, 1.7, 1.8, 1.12. Optional second chapter, now definitely complete (no, really!) Kibbs</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Kibbs shippers all seem to tackle this eventually, the "how did Gibbs know about the tattoo?" question. I think it's even a rule...

* * *

**_it's not a rose_ **

* * *

"Any more tattoos?"

"Just the rose on Kate's butt."

"It's not a rose."

"He doesn't know. He's lying just like he did about the digitalis. Okay, tell them. Gibbs?"

* * *

Gibbs knew he was smirking slightly, but he couldn't manage to wipe the expression off his face. He wasn't sure what was most satisfying: Abby's amusement, Tony's shock, or Kate's indignation.

Actually, that was a lie. The other two's reactions were priceless, Tony's disbelief in particular, but getting a rise out of Kate...

He could feel her watching him still, even though she was supposed to be finishing her report. It had been a while since he'd had Caitlin Todd so completely confused and off balance, and he enjoyed it just a little more than he should.

He wasn't sure how long it was going to take for her to ask him outright exactly how he knew about her tattoo. He suspected she was trying to summon up the strength of will and sheer bloodymindedness _not_ to ask, _not_ to give him the satisfaction of seeing she was nettled. Trying to convince herself that he was bluffing. Getting frustrated because she suspected he was not.

And that was OK. Kate was at her best when she was slightly pissed, willing to push back, unwilling to let things slide, fighting and being that ballsy woman he'd been impressed by ever since she stormed back onto Air Force One, her hand on the gun at her hip, demanding to know who the hell they were.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see her glaring at him again, and the struggle to contain his smile was getting harder moment by moment.

Between agency policy, his own rules, and the simple fact that he was her boss, he wasn't about to make a move on her - much as he'd like to. And they were past the age when pulling a girl's pigtails to get her attention was acceptable.

(Kate in pigtails. Now there was an idea. Was there any way he could convince Abby to somehow engineer a reason...? No... That was almost as bad as DiNozzo's obsession with her in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform, and when he found himself thinking like DiNozzo, it was time to worry.)

He suspected she had no idea that needling her, as well as keeping her on her toes, was his not-actually-very-grownup version of tweaking a ponytail. The fact she still looked at him sometimes with the desperate need for his approval shining in her eyes was proof enough that she had no idea how much he already admired her.

Seeing the tattoo on her backside had most definitely been an accident - every time. He had enough of a self preservation instinct left in his old bones not to go looking for ways to torture himself, and seeing any part of Kate Todd naked without being free to do anything about it... That was definitely torture.

The first time, in the XO's quarters on the Foster, he'd managed to avert his eyes and get the hell out of there. The curve of her butt was branded into his brain, and the edge of a tattoo peeking out from under her panties was something even bourbon hadn't entirely managed to erase, but he'd done his best.

He was masochistically glad he hadn't been able to bite back his reaction to seeing the 'bikini' Tony had brought her back from Puerto Rico. The very idea of her sunbathing topless...

If she thought he was a pig, that was one more layer protecting him from ever having to wonder whether they could be more than colleagues.

The next time he'd caught a glimpse was the one he tried very hard not to think about, and the one that was most difficult to forget. He was grateful they had only been on the Philadelphia for a couple of nights. Quarters could be close on a destroyer, and even on a carrier space was always at a premium, but sharing tiny rooms on a sub that was running with no aircon... He'd been simultaneously intensely relieved and deeply disappointed when they'd arrived back in Norfolk.

The first night hadn't been so bad. It was the second that would pop up in memory now and then, refusing to leave him alone, and apparently unaffected and undiminished by alcohol consumption.

The emergency blow which had sent her tumbling into his arms, breathing hard and looking up at him with awe... If the COB hadn't burst through the door just at the right moment (or just at the wrong moment, depending how he looked at it), it would have been oh so easy to lean down and claim her mouth with a kiss. Pumped with adrenaline and with her scent invading his nose and her eyes wide with surprise, he'd almost done it anyway.

Their intimate if accidental embrace hadn't gone unnoticed. Scuttlebutt was one thing that never seemed to change, no matter what ship you sailed on. The gossips had overheard a couple things, guessed a few more, and the fact Gibbs'd stood up to Veitch and insisted Kate come on board with him had sealed the deal. It took only a couple of hours for slamming into a wall as the sub headed to the surface to become a steamy affair between a senior agent and his subordinate.

Kate didn't appear to have caught on to the gossip, or at least hadn't reacted to it. The day had ended with ice cream and a fevered panic to get rid of Drew's body before the deadly gas inside him leaked out. By the time they'd fallen into what passed for beds on board, they were too exhausted and too overheated to care about anything but sleep.

Sleep. That had been a long time coming, and then patchy and restless. Lying in a pool of his own sweat was not his idea of an enjoyable night. Sometime in the small hours he'd given up trying to shut his mind off and had lain with his eyes half closed, drifting in and out of a fitful dose.

He was pretty sure he hadn't even heard Kate get up to use the head. When she came back he'd just been waking up again.

She was muttering to herself about the heat, and he'd been about to open his mouth to make some silly joke or other when she grabbed the hem of the oversized shirt she'd been wearing in bed and peeled it off in one smooth motion. He'd caught one glorious eyeful of Caitlin Todd, naked as a jaybird from her hair to her heels, and had slammed his eyes shut before he saw any more.

It was enough. He hadn't slept a second more that night, and he'd been even grumpier than usual the next day. She'd even commented on it, and he'd really had to bite his tongue. Saying "Well I had a little trouble getting any rest after your striptease" would have been a bad idea, on so many levels, but it had become seriously tempting. He congratulated himself that when they made it back to DC, she was still blissfully unaware she'd accidentally given him an eyeful of her ass.

Gitmo had been the most recent incident. This time, he felt he could confidently blame DiNozzo, whose early morning iguana encounter had got them all out of bed in a hurry.

He'd considered adding "Do not bend over when you're only wearing a basketball jersey" to his list of rules that morning. He didn't know and didn't care exactly what she'd been doing, and he was grateful that she appeared to have _something_ on underneath her shirt, but it had been a bit much when he hadn't even had his coffee yet.

It'd been another brief glimpse, but enough to confirm that her tat was a stylised butterfly superimposed over a half moon. That was... Intriguing. He was sure it must have some deep personal meaning to her, but there was no way he could ask. Which of course only made the damn thing that much more difficult to forget about.

It was simple enough to bark something about appropriate clothing, and she'd scurried back to her room, reappearing a short while later looking sheepish and definitely more suitably apparelled.

It was in Gitmo he'd felt his resolve beginning to weaken. She'd probably never thought about it, but the fact he'd informed her of his views on romance between agents while they were in Cuba... that was no coincidence. He wasn't arrogant enough to think it was likely she would ever go there anyway. She was young, beautiful, had no trouble, it seemed, finding men to date. Chances are she didn't consider it an issue... but he'd firmly stomped on the possibility. Which was a good thing, in the long run, even if occasionally it felt like a straightjacket.

A file slapped down on his desk, jolting him back to the present, and he looked up. Kate was glaring at him - a glare that promised some kind of unspecified but likely painful payback in the near future if he was any judge - but she didn't say a word.

"Thanks, Kate."

Her eyes narrowed at his mild tone, and then she turned on her heel and stalked out of the bullpen, not even pausing to acknowledge the 'good nights' from the others. Once she was safely in the lift, he allowed his grin to bloom. Yup, Kate Todd pissy and determined to prove herself was a force to be reckoned with. Just what they needed on this team.

And Gibbs... Well, Gibbs had an excellent memory.

A really, truly _excellent_ memory.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was never intending to write a follow up to this, but it was going round and round in my mind, and really, would Kate be able to leave it alone without eventually needing to know what the story was? And then this happened! Consider this an optional second chapter that takes place as long after the first as you think it would take for frustration and curiosity to overcome pride...

He ignored the banging on his door, figuring if it was important, whoever it was would just come barging in, and was totally unsurprised when they did. Seeing who it was, though, that did surprise him.

"Hi, Kate." He toasted her with his paint jar of bourbon as she slammed down the basement steps and then stood, arms crossed, at the bottom.

She glared at him like an avenging angel, and he wondered how 'molten, red hot fury' managed to look so good on her. "You don't know."

He frowned at her. "Don't know what?"

"You don't know what my tat is, do you. Do you?" She sounded like she was trying to be firm and certain, but she was failing miserably.

Oh... shit. He coughed. "Uh, I..."

"You couldn't possibly know, Gibbs, you were just bluffing, right?"

He left his response just a second too long, and the colour drained out of her face.

"You... you _know_?"

There didn't seem much point in denying it now. He shrugged.

"But how do you - how could you possibly - in my personnel file it says I've got one but it doesn't say where or what..."

He shrugged again. "It was... an accident." As excuses went it was a poor one, but suffered the virtue of being true, and he wasn't good at making stuff up on the fly when a beautiful woman with a gun was staring him down.

She looked at him like he'd suddenly started speaking Swahili. "An _accident_?"

He winced at the pitch of her voice. "It was, I swear! I didn't go looking, I was... in the wrong place at the wrong time." Also known as the right place at the right time, as far as he was concerned, but he didn't think she'd appreciate knowing that. "I just happened to see..."

"So you mean... you did actually... _see_ it? Oh, God." He nodded reluctantly, and the colour returned to her face with interest. "Oh, _God_. When...? I mean, how...?"

He probably shouldn't tell her she'd accidentally flashed it at him on three separate occasions, he decided. Unfortunately, the one that most readily explained his knowledge was also the one where he'd seen rather more than her tattoo. _She's gonna kill me_. He sighed, rubbed his hand across his face. "You remember the _Philadelphia_?"

She nodded.

"You remember that night with no aircon?"

She nodded again.

"Couldn't sleep. Kept wakin' up. One time I woke up, you were comin' back from the head, an' I was gonna say somethin' but then you-"

Her eyes got really, really wide. Clearly, she totally remembered stripping down to her birthday suit before getting back into bed. "You _looked_?"

"I didn't mean to, Kate, honest. Didn't know you were gonna do _that_. You caught me by surprise, I didn't... for a moment I just... then I shut my eyes, I _swear_."

"Oh, God." She thought about it. "You were seriously grumpy the next day."

"Didn't get a lot of sleep that night." He smiled slightly. "And spent the day after trying _not_ to say anything."

She shook her head. "Well. Thanks for that, I guess."

He shrugged. "Din't wanna embarrass you. Guess I kinda failed."

"You think?" She sighed. "I'll live." She slumped against the workbench, glanced sideways at him, looking a little less ready to kill. "And thanks for not making that little anecdote public knowledge. I'm not sure Tony believed you were bluffing, but I'd rather not hand him proof you _weren't_."

He laughed. "Welcome. I got no plans on sharing it with DiNozzo."

"Thank heavens for small mercies."

"It's a really nice tat, Kate. It suits you." He wasn't sure if it was strictly wise to comment on it, but given the situation, well, he figured there were worse things he could do than pay her a compliment.

"I just can't believe you've seen me naked. This is so unfair."

With enormous difficulty, he swallowed down the smile that wanted to emerge at the memory. "Sorry."

"Whatever happened to rule 6?"

He shrugged. "Exceptional circumstances." He sighed. "I really am sorry, Kate. Never meant for you to find out. Didn't think you'd actually come and _ask_ me..."

"Curiosity killed the cat. Or the Kate, in this case."

He chuckled, glad she still had her sense of humour. "There are worse things that could happen."

"What's worse than your boss seeing you naked?"

He really wished she'd stop _mentioning_ it. He couldn't help that every time she said it, that image came back to him in vivid detail. "It's not like I saw everything, Kate." Too bad, from his point of view, but good from hers. "It was just your back-" of course, that meant he'd seen her butt, and that was more than enough for him to relive with guilty pleasure, but he probably shouldn't tell her that, either "-for, what, five seconds. Less, even. At least you didn't turn around." God, what if she had? Five seconds of seeing Kate in all her glory. He would've had a heart attack, sure, but he would've died happy.

She managed a wan smile. "That's one way of looking at it, I guess."

"Besides, you got nothin' to be ashamed of."

As soon as it came out, he knew that was the wrong thing to say, said in completely the wrong way. He'd meant that it was his fault, not hers, but...

She was looking at him intently. "Well..." Her tone was dry. "I guess I should just be grateful you approve of my back view."

He closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands. "God, that came out... really wrong."

To his surprise, she laughed - actually _laughed_. "You saying you didn't approve?"

"No. I mean-" _Shit. Shitshitshit_. Whatever he said in this context was going to land him in deep trouble.

She laughed again, throwing her head back. "Good Lord, Gibbs, I don't think I've ever seen you embarrassed before."

He risked a glance up at her. She was still pink, but with a reluctant smile on her face. At his expense. Though in the circumstances, he probably deserved the payback. "Don't think I should say anythin' else."

The smile widened. "I don't know, Gibbs, I kind of like you when you have your foot in your mouth." She tilted her head to one side. "It makes a fun change."

He narrowed his eyes at her. On the one hand, if she was teasing him, at least she was no longer planning an inventive murder. On the other hand, she was... teasing him.

She smiled brightly and hopped up to sit on the edge of the workbench, crossing her ankles in a ladylike manner. "I think I need a drink."

Wordlessly, he got up from his perch on the ratty couch and held out his paint jar out to her. She wrinkled her nose but took a sip, and he was vaguely impressed when she didn't cough or splutter.

"Thanks." She passed the jar back to him, and he settled his butt next to her.

"Welcome."

"In the circumstances, it's the least you could do. I think you owe me big time, Gibbs." She nodded decisively.

He took another swig of bourbon. "I do?"

"Uh-huh. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful you didn't tell Tony about this. But still. You saw me naked."

She really needed to stop mentioning that. "Yeah, I did."

"And you saw my tattoo."

He nodded again. "And your ass." He hadn't meant to say that out loud, but they were probably past the stage where he could make anything worse.

"Thanks for reminding me." She stole the jar back and took another swig of bourbon. "So yeah. I think this calls for appropriate restitution."

"Resti-what?" He turned his head to look at her, and she was looking at him, and they were a lot closer together than he'd realised. He swallowed.

"I mean, you owe me."

"Any way I can... make it up to you?" His voice had gotten a lot lower all of a sudden, and Kate was very... close.

She laughed, and her voice was low and husky, too. "Maybe you should show me yours... Only fair."

Her tone was... well, if this had been a date, he would've said that tone was decidedly flirtatious. He glanced down at her mouth, licked his lips. "Show you my what?"

She shrugged. "Tats. Ass." A slow, wicked smile spread across her face. "Both."

He swallowed hard. "You... my..." He coughed. "That's what you want?"

She leaned in towards him, and her eyes were dark and liquid. "Well you know, Gibbs... I think it'd be a really good start."

_~ fin ~_


End file.
